Eliezer

In Parshas Lech Lechah (15:2) Avrohom says “what can you give me I don’t have any children and Eliezer my servant will inherit me.”  Chazal have a derash on the words of the verse that describe Eliezer as ben damasak that Eliezer was dolah umashkeh metoroshon shel Avrohom which means that Eliezer taught the Torah of Avrohom to the masses.  This is seemingly a great praise of Eliezer, so why would Avrohom mention this when he was trying to “complain” that Eliezer would inherit him?  In our Parsha we find that there is a switch in terms for how Eliezer is referred to.  He is originally referred to as eved, slave then he is called iesh, man and finally reverts back to eved.  Why the change in language?  In Parshas Chukas there is a midrash cited in the Daas Zekanim that Og is Eliezer, how can it be that Eliezer the servant of Avrohom who taught Torah, would go fight against Klal Yisroel? 

The Meor VAshemesh in Lech Lechah explains Avrohom’s point was that Eliezer can only give over my Torah but has no ability to be mechadash on his own.  Eliezer was completely nullified before Avrohom and that’s where his whole Judaism stemmed from, but he hadn’t figured out his own path how to serve Hashem.  That is a denigration of Eliezer for a person isn’t supposed to do Judaism because that’s what his father or master did, but he is supposed to figure out the proper path in life by himself.

We can now explain our Parsha.  First Eliezer is going on his mission as a pure slave doing the bidding of his master.  When he arrives, he must decide who is the right match and must do an action of his own to figure out how to find the right match.  Therefore, he is called an iesh for he did an action on his own accord not simply being a servant following orders.  This was his chance to advance and become an iesh (to find his own path in serving Hashem not just copying Avrohom.)  However, he came to Laven and said eved Avrohom anochi- I’m merely a slave following Avrohom not my own being, that I acted on my own accord was a temporary change based upon necessity, so he goes back to being called an eved.   

Now we understand how Eliezer became Og.  His whole service of Hashem came from his service to Avrohom.  Once Avrohom passed on, Eliezer lost his whole source of his service of Hashem and therefore went on to become Og.

In next week’s Parsha, Rashi tells us that the prayers of Yitzchak were answered over those of Rivka because Yitzchak was a tzaddik the son of a tzaddik as opposed to Rivka who was the daughter of a rasha.  Why is the son of a tzaddik a reason to have his prayers accepted more it would seem that the son of a rasha had more work to do to become a tzaddik and that should be a reason that his prayers are accepted more?  The Michtav MeEliyahu explains that the son of a tzaddik has a harder job to find his own path of avodas Hashem.  Yet Yitzchak was successful as Avrohom emphasized the attribute of chesed as oppose to Yitzhak who was known for the attribute of gevurah.  The Panim Meiros says the reason why each one of the avos is mentioned independently in the shemonah esraih is since each one found their own path in avodas Hashem and didn’t just take what their father gave them.